platonic. | park woojin

two

"Minjung do you have any lunch?" Woojin asks, I shake my head,

"Why would I have any lunch? My mum's really annoyed at me." I scribble down some notes from the board "Aren't you going to write that down Woojin?" His book was empty except from a title and the date

"Write what down?"

"The notes in the board, and you're the one that got an academic scholarship. Want to swap?" Woojin shakes his head,

"I'm okay with my scholarship but can I borrow your notes after class to write them down? There's only five minutes left and I missed some stuff."

"Sure," I say "but can you please buy me lunch in return? Just something small." Woojin thinks about it for a moment "Like, a strawberry milk or something like that?"

"I could buy you the whole cafeteria if you wanted me to, Minjung." He grins and I let out a laugh,

"So could I, as well as everyone at this school." A school filled with only the richest, you've got be crazy to not want to go here. My parents were originally considering sending me abroad to study but instead this school opened; the best teachers from all over the world, made by a rich person for rich people. 

"But when you think about it, I don't even have to buy the cafeteria to give you the whole thing." Woojin says, that's right - I should mention his father's the principal and the guy that owns, and founded, this whole joint. 

"Yeah, but I don't need the whole thing. Like I said, just a strawberry milk will do." I pat my exceedingly flat stomach and smile "Can't gain too much weight."

"Why not? You don't do anything that requires you to be skinny." My face falls, I know that; my mother's expectations are just far too high.

"She just wants her daughter to be someone she isn't." I sigh

"For what?" Woojin remarks "You don't need it."

"To impress other men, apparently they prefer it if I'm skinny. The only thing mum praises me for is constantly telling me I'm pretty enough to get a husband."

"And then what? Slave away at home and do everything he asks you to do? That's pretty stupid." The teacher calls the class together.

"Everybody class is over, make sure you have all the notes written down and remember to study for that test next week." Woojin and I grab our things and begin to head to our usual lunch spot, taking a small detour by the cafeteria to get strawberry milk.

"I think my mum will probably make me marry someone with a lot of money and a well recognisable family." Woojin lets out a cough "But when I think of all the big names their sons are practically all married off; either that or my mother doesn't think they're smart enough." Woojin coughs again "Are you okay, Woojin?" He nods 

"I'm fine. You know Minjung," he says, "wouldn't it be easy if you just married me?" I almost spit out my milk

"What?" I half-yell, the thought itself sounded ridiculous.

"Nothing, I'm just messing with you." We reach our usual spot, a patch of grass right under a typically leaf covered tree and we sit down. "So, can I copy your notes?" Not quite fully recovered from what he jut said I cautiously pull my book from my bag and give it to him.

"There you go, copy away." He takes a picture of the pages and then hands it back to me,

"I'll do it later, just check with me around 5 I'll definitely have free time to do it then." We both sit on the grass in utter silence, Woojin chewing through a packet of something - snack of some description I'm just not sure what, I don't eat snacks. "Can you imagine if we went to 'normal' schools like most people in Seoul do."

"What do you mean? Like, are we still rich." Woojin nods "That would be weird, a lot of people would swarm to us and try to get money our off us. We'd get used a lot."

"That's true, do you want to try one. You've been eyeing the package for awhile."

"What are they?" I try to get a look at the packet but his hand was covering all the necessary information.

"They're just biscuits, nothing special about them." He passes me "They don't taste bad at all, my father got them given to him as a present from our maths teacher but he didn't really like them he's letting me have them." I eat the smaller sized biscuit, for something so small it did taste very good.

"They taste nice, I can see why you like them." Woojin nods,

"Should I bring in a packet for you tomorrow? We have heaps at home, besides my parents don't mind. They worry about you just as much as I do." We both let out a laugh.

"I'm not sure if that's possible Woojin, you worry about me far to much." I giggle,

"Where do you think I got it from?" He has a good point, I don't think I've seen a worser pair of worriers than Woojin's parents. They worry about everything, and thankfully, Woojin's not that bad. "Okay, but do you want the biscuits?"

"Sure, if you don't mind bringing them."

"Hop on the scale." My mother barks at me, I'm not sure what she's supposed to expect. One biscuit and a tiny thing of strawberry milk isn't going to do much "Good." She grins, writing the number down "You've been very consistent over that last few months, maybe I should give your phone back." That would be a miracle, she opens up the draw where I know the device is and she picks it up. "Here you go, don't you ever think about weighing more than you have to. Okay?"

"Yes, mother." She gives me a huge smile and a heartless hug, I step back onto the scales - 38kg, I'm really underweight. I sigh, and it's all for nothing. I put some comfortable clothes on and flop down onto my bed, when I think about it Woojin saying that I should marry him doesn't actually sound that bad. It's better than any other option, but I don't see myself getting married. I don't see myself getting very far in life at all to be honest with you. I walk over to my violin and begin playing my examination piece, it was extremely difficult and very sad - if there's one thing I'm good at doing it's being sad.